Accidentally devoted to you
by aLoggedInReader
Summary: After getting his soul back Sam and Dean are back on the road. Things are never uncomplicated for the Winchester brothers to begin with, but the appearance of a certain assumed dead archangel isn't make things better... especially since he insists to be called Loki. Set mid-season 6, will follow some canon events and disregard others, rated T for now, rating might go up later.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:** Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

Please leave a short comment if you like the chapter. Your reviews mean the world to me!

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 **1**

Sam Winchester spent enough time tied to various pieces of furniture that it became less a matter of 'Oh my God, what are you going to do to me?' and more a matter of 'Really? Did it have to be the table that's already hurting my back?'

Dean was completely right when he declared witches to be the worst. Hell, any monsters who were actually human and thus chose to be monsters in the first place were really bad even for their standards, but as his older brother so eloquently put it witches also had a knack for spewing bodily fluids everywhere, both their own or those of their victims. Of course, Sam just had to run into a bunch of anarchist teenage witches. It was the triple Jackpot of "suckitude" to say it in words those teens would be able to understand.

Not that Sam could talk with the gag they put into his mouth. A gag one of the teens had pulled out of a laundry basket that contained the unwashed laundry for all it looked like. Witches were just downright unsanitary, Dean was right in that point too.

Thinking of his older brother, between only just getting his soul back, having a wall he was not allowed to scratch at in his mind and now being put on a makeshift sacrificial table next to the laundry machines in the basement of some family's home Dean was never going to allow Sam to leave the house again. The house they of course didn't even technically have. Sam's freedom would be heavily limited in whatever way Dean could realistically manage. There was a real chance Dean would never allow him to leave the Impala again.

In all honesty, Sam had no idea what the chances for a god or goddess showing up to claim a sacrifice in person generally were, but even though he didn't understand more than a word of the incantation the teenage witches used, Sam was confident that he didn't have to worry about that part anyway. Loki was not going to drop by, Lucifer made sure of that. Not that Sam was going to let the stupid teenagers in on that.

Now Sam only had to use the much-needed time he had received to come up with an escape plan. Unfortunately, the teenagers were quite good at the whole restraint thing. The hunter couldn't move his hand or feet in the slightest, which was the first thing Sam would have to work on. At least it looked like he would be given the chance to do just that.

"If Loki hasn't claimed him come morning, we'll kill him," the most preppy looking of the teenage witches decided, flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she gestured for the other two to follow her outside.

Sam could hear one of the other two -the punk-looking teenager if he had to guess- arguing that they should stay around to actually meet Loki, but both the preppy and the nerdy witch shot him down. Say what you want about witchcraft, but it sure brought people of all social circles together in utter stupidity.

Unfortunately, it was quite unlikely that Dean would notice he was missing before two or three in the morning. In retrospect, Sam shouldn't have insisted on them checking out clues separately, but Dean's constant hovering and the concerned looks his older brother kept shooting him these days whenever they were in the same room just got too much to bear after a while. Sam only wanted to do something on his own for a while to sort some things out before he returned to his brother. He even willingly let Dean go after the more promising suspect. Not that it had helped any.

Sam exhaled as soundly as he could around the gag and tried to relax for a moment. He had some time and relaxation usually helped with the thinking process. If he could loosen up the ropes enough to get just one of his limbs free...

"You know, usually I don't do this whole human sacrifice thing. Give me some Hershey's, Nestle, Kinder... even fruit if you must, but humans? You guys just taste awful," an all too familiar voice suddenly commented. It took a moment before Sam could localize where the voice came from, but when he did his head snapped toward the far side of the room where the smirking trickster -which was apparently what Gabriel was going for at that moment- was perched on the dryer of all things.

"These things are no fun when they're turned off," the trickster commented as if he could read Sam's thoughts as he kicked the dryer once and hopped off, "No vibrations."

Sam automatically rolled his eyes. It probably was a good thing that he couldn't comment with the gag in his mouth. Gabriel could help him out of this situation with a snap of his fingers -literally- antagonizing him in any way would be the stupidest thing Sam could do under the circumstances no matter how tempting. However, many questions burned on Sam's tongue, questions he understandably needed an answer to. The most obvious of which was, 'How the hell are you alive?'

"Anyway, where was I? Oh right, human sacrifice," the trickster stated as he walked up to Sam, casually unwrapping a lollipop he just pulled from his pocket, "You know, human sacrifice is really only ever welcome, if the offering is adequate and you... it doesn't get more inadequate than you."

Sam wasn't entirely sure if he should feel insulted or lucky. Maybe a mixture of both would do. Something about the way Gabriel was speaking, strutting around and looking at him really rubbed Sam the wrong way though, so he decided to just wait and see where this was going. Not that he realistically could do much else.

"I like my sacrifice evil, perverted, rotten to the core," the trickster went on, completely ignoring that the person he was talking to could not participate in the conversation, "You? A bunch of wrong things done for all the right reasons... and then a little on top that really doesn't count."

Sam frowned deeply as he listened to Gabriel's assessment of his character. It was weird to hear the archangel say things like that, when he had been one of the people who had always judged Sam's actions quite harshly. Hell, the archangel had punished Sam for his wrongdoings more than once! Sam nearly wanted to laugh at this turn of events, but the gag was still firmly in place.

"So, you see why you're a completely insufficient sacrifice?" the trickster concluded, before his ever present smirk turned darker, menacing, "I'll have to teach those witches a lesson about making great demands and offering something completely inadequate in return."

The teenagers wanted a great amount of chaos and anarchy for their sacrifice -this inadequate one and the ones they had done over the past days for which the trickster didn't even bother to show up for- but they had not made an effort to find something that was even close to the trickster's liking. It was too bad for them that he had now officially acknowledged their attempts and thus would have to do something about them.

Sam snorted into his gag and rolled his eyes once more. Truth be told, he didn't give a damn if Gabriel threw those three witches into a wormhole, or whatever else he would deem a fitting punishment for them. Alright, so maybe Sam gave a little of a damn, he couldn't help himself in that regard, but he wasn't going to plead their case. In fact, Gabriel taking care of it spared Sam and Dean from having to somehow keep a bunch of witches from ever practicing witchcraft again, preferably without killing a bunch of still under adult age humans. However, Sam was getting quite tired of listening to Gabriel going on and on about inane stuff while being bound to the table was starting to seriously torture Sam's back.

"Right, anything you want to say for yourself?" the trickster asked with a more benevolent smirk, as he snapped his fingers and made the gag disappear.

"What the hell, Gabriel? Just set me free already!" Sam spat the moment he was able to talk. This whole thing had gone on long enough. The longer it lasted the more worried Sam got that something really bad was happening and that he absolutely had no idea about was going on here. Gabriel was a strange guy, even for an angel, unusual in all regards, but he simply wasn't acting... right. The last time they had seen each other, Gabriel had faced his own certain death by the hands of Lucifer just to give them a chance to stop the Apocalypse. The archangel went on like none of that had ever happened and there was nobody other than Sam around, no one around he had to keep up a charade for.

"This is getting better and better," the trickster huffed out an annoyed breath as he threw his arms in the air showily, "You don't even know who you're being sacrificed to. That's just adding insult to injury!"

Sam swallowed hard. It couldn't be, but then again, who was he to say what could and couldn't be? By all rights, Sam should have been in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. It was an inescapable prison after all, but somehow first his body and then his soul were extracted from it. If this being in front of him looked like Gabriel, but somehow wasn't Gabriel at all, that left one other logical option, "Loki."

"Smart boy, but I won't give those ignorant fools credit for this now," the trickster replied with a more content smile, "We have met before after all and you are smart enough to have figured it out by yourself."

The teenage witches would still pay for setting this entire thing up in the first place and then some more for setting it up all wrong. Granted, it wasn't as easy as it used to be to find accurate and detailed descriptions of how to correctly sacrifice to the different gods around, but still, if they wanted to get into the business, they had to at least make an effort to learn the trade. Loki could have overlooked some small wrongdoings in the proceedings, but as things were those fools hadn't done a single thing right!

"You know me?" Sam asked astonished. He was pretty damn sure that the four times they had met Gabriel before, it had always been Gabriel and nobody else. There had been references to the other times they met every time after all, but if this god claimed he wasn't Gabriel at all, how did that make any sense?

"Not as smart as I thought," Loki clicked his tongue in disappointment, before he shrugged and added, "Still better than that brother of yours. Prettier too, if that helps your ego."

Sam completely ignored the second part of Loki's statement in favor of trying to make sense of the whole situation. Not that he was getting anywhere with the information he had at hand. Loki knew at least something about their previous meetings with Gabriel and he sure talked as if he had been there in person and not only heard of them. Was it possible that somehow, the archangel had shared a vessel with the trickster god and only the latter survived when Lucifer killed Gabriel? "How are you...?"

"Did you get brain damaged somewhere down the line?" Loki asked with a mock-concerned frown as he leaned in close to examine Sam's face. Apparently, he saw something that made the concern more heartfelt in his short examination as well. "Oh, I see... Sorry, big guy, I didn't look for that earlier."

Something seriously bad had happened to the human and while that was written all over his being -something the trickster had deliberately ignored earlier, because the guy was a hunter and a Winchester to boot, so naturally bad things happened to him- the real damage seemed to somehow be contained in his mind. Someone had messed around with it severely in an attempt to undo some damage somebody else had done before. It was fascinating in a way, like a car crash, nothing Loki really wanted to see, let alone concern himself with, but it was hard to look away.

"No, I... I remember you. Clear as day," Sam replied around the lump that had made its home in his throat at Loki's assessment. Knowing that he was messed up was one thing, but knowing that it was obvious to everyone who looked deep enough was something else entirely. Alright, not everyone could look behind the surface just powerful, supernatural beings... which was only about half of the people Sam met. It was especially great to know that the bad guys he faced might be able to tell.

"Good," Loki nodded to himself, before he waggled his eyebrows at Sam and added with a smirk, "So, about that sacrifice part."

Sam blinked once, then twice and gave his best fish-on-dry-land impression as he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. What finally made it out of his mouth was, "What? I thought you didn't..."

"Problem is, Gigantor, I technically accepted the sacrifice the moment I showed up here to take a look," Loki shrugged casually, as if he was talking about the weather instead of how he was going to force himself to feast on some human flesh even though he found it disgusting. At least that was what Sam supposed Loki was talking about. "It's fully within my rights to find you completely inadequate, which I still do, but I accepted nonetheless."

"Then let me go on my _inadequate_ way and I'll try to stay out of your hair," Sam groaned, struggling against his restraints for a moment just to make his position clear. He would gladly get out of Loki's hair, if the god just undid the ropes and let him leave. The trickster had made it plenty clear that he had no use whatsoever for someone like Sam -which actually counted as a win here, even though hearing he was inadequate over and over wasn't exactly nice- and he wasn't talking like he particularly wanted to kill Sam, so he might as well just do the logical thing and let him go.

"Uh-uh, not-so-iron giant," Loki replied in a chastising tone, wagging his index finger at the hunter for good measure, "A sacrifice has to be made here."

It wasn't Loki who made the rules. Granted, he broke the rules or rather bent the rules quite frequently and he did intend to bend them here, but the rules were still there. Apparently, he really had given Sam too much credit when it came to how smart the hunter was. The borderline panicked look on Sam's face said all too clearly that his mind was still stuck on the idea of being eaten, while Loki's mind had long moved on from that.

"Oh don't be silly and don't worry, Long Cat," Loki laughed, before he leaned in until the tips of his hair were tickling the side of Sam's face and he could whisper seductively, "After all, not all sacrifice is bloody."

"No!" Sam yelled, struggling against the ropes that bound him to the table until he could feel them biting into his skin until he nearly bled when Loki put a hand on his chest. "No! Absolutely not!"

To his credit, the trickster moved back nearly immediately, though he looked more annoyed and insulted than understanding of the fact that Sam didn't like the prospect of being pressured into sex. In fact, there was even more to it than that as well, but even Sam himself couldn't quite put his finger on it. He just knew that the trickster's advances while he was mostly powerless to do anything against them made him panic, though it helped a little that Loki had backed off at Sam's refusal.

"Excuse me?" Loki asked, for the first time not smirking, but nearly pouting, "I'll let you know that I've tangled with countless people, beings and what I like to categorize as 'other' before and everyone was highly satisfied."

Loki had his fair share of ex-lovers, ex-friends with benefits, ex-acquaintances with benefits and so on and so forth. Of course, most of them weren't exactly on good terms with him these days, but that had little to do with his qualities as a lover and a lot to do with his trickster nature. His more or less casual relationships simply tended to hit a point where he was bored and then the pranks started. Very few of his partners were appreciative of that and those who were stopped appreciating them after that one inevitable prank that simply went too far. At least, there were always Hel and Thor who liked to hear the stories afterward.

"I'd be tempted to hardly call it a sacrifice on your part, but... we have established that you are utterly inadequate anyway, so it will do," Loki added for good measure, waggling his eyebrows at the hunter once more.

"Don't you dare touch me!" Sam spat, "And if you say 'inadequate' one more time, I swear..!"

For a moment Sam was sure that he had gone too far. The trickster's face was completely impassive and the silence that had fallen over the room didn't bode well either. At least that was what Sam thought until Loki suddenly started to laugh so long and hard that he had to bend over and put his hands on his knees until he managed to stop again.

"I like you," Loki finally proclaimed, raising his hand to snap his fingers, only waiting a moment so he could explain, "And I'm really not into non-con anyway. Consent is sexy."

It wasn't like Loki didn't have more than enough willing bed partners, if he went looking for one... or two... three at the most, anything more usually became a logistic nightmare much too quickly. Of course, not all gods shared his way of thinking when it concerned sacrifice of the sexual kind, but Loki was all about having fun and enjoying the moment.

"Thank you," Sam stated, trying to sound at least a little meek as he rubbed his chaffed wrists. A pagan god had just basically done him a favor out of the goodness of his heart -however strange that might sound- so Sam thought a little gratefulness was in order. Of course, Sam was still aching to find out what exactly happened to Gabriel and how Loki was here now, especially looking exactly like the last time they had met...or he had met Gabriel…and/or Loki…whatever, though that aspect might be explained away easily enough with shape shifting, but the hunter thought he should just be glad that things turned out okay for him.

"No need to thank me," Loki shrugged, his trademark smirk firmly in place again as he added, "After all you never fulfilled your sacrifice."

Sam instinctively took a step back to put some more space between himself and the trickster at that announcement. It didn't make sense, but then what about this encounter had made sense? Sam frowned as he asked, "What does that mean?"

"You, Sam Winchester, belong to me now," Loki proclaimed somehow managing to sound nonchalant, but solemn at the same time, "Expect to see me again."

Sam's eyes widened in realization. There were a thousand questions running through his head, but they were all getting in the way of each other so he couldn't decide which one to ask first.

"But first I have to teach those kids a lesson about _inadequate_ sacrifices," Loki announced with a wide smirk before he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Somehow, Sam was convinced the trickster's laughter still hung in the air long after Loki was gone. How was he ever going to explain any of this to Dean?


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** Thanks so much to Larkafree2, Maknatuna, QuietCrash, SummerMistedDragon, Crazy as a Cheshire Cat, XxZessxX, FunKyPanDa, steelgray and Animegirl1279 for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

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 **2**

There were few things Loki loved as much as a well stocked bar and by well stocked he didn't only think of just about every alcoholic drink under the sun, though those were important too. Without the alcohol, the most fitting description for the place would have been 'candy shop'. Not that candy shops weren't awesome all by themselves, but they were usually lacking in the alcohol department.

One of these days Loki would have to open his own bar -most likely called 'Candy Bar', or 'Sweets and Drinks'- but realistically he didn't have the time to run a business like that. Also realistically, he would lose interest much too quickly to make a business work. There was always the option to find someone else to open and run that bar and grant him constant VIP access, though. For now borrowing -without asking of course- the Salt Lake City bar he had discovered a while ago and that came kind of close to his vision would have to do. What a coincidence that the owner suddenly had to leave town because of a family related emergency at just the evening that Loki was in need of access to the place.

The trickster god's musings were interrupted when the door opened and a petite woman entered. Technically, the bar wasn't open to the general public that evening, but Loki would gladly make an exception for the red-head, even if she wore much too casual clothes for an establishment like... On second thought, the ripped at the knee jeans and layered green shirt were entirely appropriate.

"Nu-uh, I'll have to see some ID first," Loki clicked his tongue disapprovingly as he pulled the cocktail glass the woman -close up she might actually still be more of a girl- had reached for away from her.

Amber eyes narrowed at Loki, before an eyebrow was lifted in a 'you can't possibly be serious' manner. The woman reached across the bar to get to the tall glass, but Loki would have none of it. The trickster god had to admit that he deserved the annoyed groan that came from his guest. "If you don't give me the wine gums this instant..."

"Then what?" Loki asked, smirking and clearly having too much fun with the situation. Of course, he had filled the cocktail glass with red wine gums earlier -everything tasted even a little better when presented with style- and put it on the bar. That didn't mean he wanted to share though, especially given the circumstances. "You know, behaving infantile does nothing to convince me you're old enough to have them."

"Would you act like this over gummy bears?" the woman shot back, giving Loki a challenging look.

"Nope," Loki answered, popping the p for all it was worth before he added, "But there's no age limit for eating bears in this country."

The urge to whack the trickster god over the head with a rolled up newspaper or something alike was steadily rising, but that wouldn't exactly speak for her being an adult either. Not that Loki was acting like an adult in that moment, or ever really. "How many centuries do I have to be old before you stop..?"

"Doesn't matter how old you are, sweet cheeks," Loki stated with a gentle -yet slightly mocking- smile as he leaned over the bar to pinch her cheek, "You'll always be my baby girl!"

Hel huffed out a half-chuckle, half-groan, but smiled back at her father. That finally prompted Loki to slide the glass of wine gums over to her and make her smile even brighter. The love for sweets was something the trickster god had clearly passed on to his daughter, among other things. All in all, she was the one of his children he got along with the best and the one he saw the most. Actually, those two things might have been related to each other...

"Any particular reason you asked me to come here?" Hel asked after a couple of moments spent in silence as she feasted on her hard won wine gums. The bar was nice, not quite as nice as any of the places the Norse gods usually hung out, but the lack of other Norse gods around actually made it better. With few, very specific exceptions anyway.

"I felt in the mood for a little," Loki answered, gesturing between himself and his daughter before he finished, "Us time."

Hel laughed and shook her head as she leaned across the bar once more to get closer to her father. Propping her elbows up on the bar, she played around with a strand of her curly hair, waiting for her father to start talking. When he didn't, Hel prompted, "Must've been the prank of the century."

"Ah, not exactly a prank," Loki answered with a wide grin. The trickster god allowed himself to take a short break and get some m&ms for himself. He had no urge to get his hand bitten for grabbing some of Hel's candy. It had happened before after all. Talk about sharp teeth, "Not really."

"I'm intrigued," Hel stated, mirroring her father's grin. Whenever he started to spin a story like that, it was usually pretty damn good. Generally, Hel had no problem with humans. Most were decent people who were just living their human lives until they died for one reason or another. Those her father targeted were the kind that deserved whatever they got though. There was no use crying over a couple bad apples.

"Remember those idiots I told you about?" Loki asked, his best trickster smirk firmly in place.

"You'll have to be a little more specific," Hel huffed out a chuckle. Idiot was a word her father used to describe a lot of people, so he could have been talking about anyone from Thor to some random hick in some random town.

"Humans, North America, sacrificing people this past week," Loki elaborated, waving his hand as he was talking. When he was sure that his daughter knew what he was talking about he added, "They tried again."

"I thought they annoyed you," Hel replied with a slight frown, "You called their offerings not even worthy of the first glance."

"Not this one," Loki stated a little too fervently even for his own taste. One look at his daughter confirmed that she had picked up on it too. Then again, it didn't really matter if Hel knew or suspected. There was nobody he trusted like his daughter after all.

"Oh, so they did something right for a change?" Hel asked, clearly surprised. As badly as things had started out with those teenage witches, it would be a small miracle if they got anything right for a change. To be fair, most pagan gods would have taken the bloody sacrifices and been happy with them, but Loki had very refined tastes so to say.

"Nope. The sacrifice was not up to my standards at all," Loki shrugged casually, "I've had enough of those idiots."

Even though the trickster god didn't go after innocent -after his personal definition- people, it didn't particularly bother him to know some of them were dying. Humans died, it was part of their nature. Humans killed other humans; that was and always had been part of their nature too. In the grand scheme of things a couple less humans didn't matter at all. Heck, looking at how many there were, a couple less might even be good for the world. Though Loki had his own definition of people the world would be better off without... and those teenage witches had managed to make the list. All in all, he had been very nice to them in the end.

"What did you do?" Hel asked with a raised eyebrow. Even though it seemed like the story was about the witches right now, she had the uncanny feeling that there was something more to it and she wasn't sure, if she would like the other part of that story. Something about her father's whole demeanor was just off. It seemed like the sacrifice had gotten him excited and the punishment part was just an afterthought. That was... unusual, to say the least.

"Equipped them with a few baggies of drugs, found the closest airport and dropped them at the TSA checkpoint," Loki answered, clearly happy with himself. The TSA wasn't fun for anyone after all, but the moment they found something illegal things got really ugly, especially for a couple of stupid teenagers who wouldn't know how to keep their mouths shut if their lives depended on it.

"That's pretty tame for your standards," Hel pointed out. Granted, they were just teenagers and chances were they were in pretty deep trouble now. Still, her father's enthusiasm about the whole thing really couldn't be explained away with the prank he pulled now.

"Just you wait until the cops search their homes," Loki grinned. He had made sure to plant a couple of very embarrassing things in each of their rooms next all the incriminating evidence a cop could dream of. Somehow Loki had a feeling that having a ten inch dragon penis shaped sex toy filled with cocaine on the list of evidence would be worse for a teenager than anything else.

Hel had to chuckle at that. She didn't doubt her father had been very creative with planting whatever it was he wanted the authorities to find. He would probably tell her all about it in just a moment too. However, that was where Hel was wrong.

"Oh, by the way, the sacrifice? A hunter," Loki added seemingly casually. He knew exactly that his daughter would not appreciate to hear the next part. Hell, if it had been Hel telling him the exact same thing, Loki wouldn't have liked it either. Actually, in retrospect, Loki wasn't even all too sure why he had done what he had done, but thinking about it more deeply made him uncomfortable, so he didn't, "I kept him."

"You... what?" Hel exclaimed, her eyes widening for exactly the reasons her father expected and then some, "Dad, a hunter!"

"So? Not like any of them know how to kill me," Loki retorted without batting an eye. Actually, this hunter even already knew not to try the whole staking thing, because it was utterly useless. Not that Hel knew about that part yet. "Besides, I did offer him the whole 'a little one night stand will set you free' thing, but it seems he'd rather be mine forever."

Maybe hunters knew better than to say yes to pagan gods -at least they knew more about the possible consequences than the general public did- but the way Sam had refused him still seemed curious. Loki would have to have another chat with the hunter soon to learn a little more about him. At least this one wasn't likely to just fall to his knees and just say 'yes, master' to whatever Loki wanted. They might have a couple actual talks. Sam seemed interesting and smart enough to make it worth his while too.

"Did you tell him about that part?" Hel snorted, suppressing the shudder that wanted to break free at the thought of her father hooking up with a random hunter. Damn, Kali was bad enough, but hunters were just... hunters were one of the few types of people Hel was tempted to personally get her hands dirty -not to say bloody- on.

"Kinda," Loki waved his daughter's question aside, "He's smart, he'll figure it out."

"Now what?" Hel sighed deeply, before she put a smirk back on her face and tried to think of the best case scenario. "You'll let him live the rest of his life always knowing that you could come back for him any second? That's pretty cruel, I approve."

Her father wasn't stupid, he would know better than to hang out with a hunter. Even if that statement might not be 100% true, her father also got bored easily and surely wouldn't want to hang out with a human who already belonged to him and thus didn't pose a challenge or even a real threat. Not in any way her father knew of, anyway.

"Too cruel," Loki retorted with a raised eyebrow. Of course, his daughter's dislike for hunters wasn't exactly news to him, but it was still a rather strong reaction coming from her. Or maybe -though Loki wasn't quite ready to accept that himself- he simply didn't like her talking about him never seeing this particular hunter again. There was something about the human... maybe it was simply because they had met before, but there definitely was something... "Besides, I like him. I might just drop by now and then. He's a Winchester, chances are I won't have that much time to pester him anyway."

Chances were Loki only had to find out why exactly he felt drawn to the human to lose interest in him. The trickster god had never met a human who could keep him entertained for longer than a few months, a couple of years at most. Or maybe he wanted to seduce the man who had made it so clear that he wasn't going to let himself be touched by Loki. That sounded like quite the challenge. Either way, as soon as Loki figured out what it was that drew him to Sam and then got his way, the whole affair would be over and done with.

"He's a what?" Hel yelled, before she managed to force her voice to take on an only moderately loud tone, "A Winchester? You can't be serious!"

"You know, I came here to have a good time, share a funny story with my favorite daughter and I'm feeling so attacked right now," Loki replied in a quiet -too quiet- and cold tone.

"This is not funny! You're putting yourself and..." Hel argued, but before she could say anything more her father unceremoniously snapped his fingers and was gone. Not that it came completely unexpected. Her father avoided conflict wherever he could. That was one of the things that hadn't changed.

Hel punched the bar hard enough to make the thick wood crack, before she reached for her phone with shaking hands and typed a message. Some human inventions were pretty damn useful. Most magical ways of calling someone were messy and/or somewhat unpleasant. However, phone screens broke much too easily in the hands of emotional gods.

By the time the bear of a man also known as Thor made it to the place Hel had texted him about, she was slamming her forehead into the bar repeatedly. That combined with the 'Your ass. Here. Now.' message Thor had received didn't bode well at all.

"We've got a problem," Hel mumbled after she let Thor pet her hair for a few long moments. Hel forced herself to lift her head after soaking up some more much needed comfort and looked at the sympathetic gaze of the thunder god. The fact that Thor could have so much honest sympathy for her without even knowing a thing about what had happened was the main reason why Hel wouldn't have wanted to be in this with anyone else. Hel took a deep breath and recounted everything her father just told her.

"I told you we can't keep him from his old life forever," Thor stated after he let Hel get her story and the following rant off her chest.

"With all the dumb stuff you say, how am I supposed to know when I should listen to you?" Hel asked, without any heat in her voice.

Thor didn't grace her with an answer -she wouldn't want anyway- and instead just hugged her. They could figure something out. They had done something even more impossible than keeping Loki from whatever destructive thing he thought he wanted to do just recently after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** Thanks so much to Larkafree2, Maknatuna, Nicolene B, QuietCrash, Lady Grelka, Crazy as a Cheshire Cat, LeeMarieJack and SummerMistedDragon for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

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 **3**

Dean had been quick to pick Sam up after Sam located his phone and told Dean the bare minimum he could get away with. Technically saying that Sam had been knocked out and restrained by the teenage witches was just as true as saying that he had no idea where they currently were. Dean hadn't asked how exactly Sam managed to get free and Sam hadn't volunteered the information. At least not this far.

"Look, Dean, about what happened back there..." Sam stated with a sigh after he had some time to think things through. He had to let Dean in on this, even if Sam didn't know exactly what 'this' was yet. An entity who sure looked and acted a lot like Gabriel was out there, even if he insisted that he was Loki. No matter what exactly was up with that situation, it was something Dean should know about. Especially since said entity declared ownership of Sam. It was anybody's guess what would come out of that.

"It's okay, Sammy," Dean interrupted his brother with a dismissive gesture, "You got out of there and we'll catch them eventually. They're teenagers, they can't hide forever."

Sam nodded and smiled halfheartedly. Chances were the teenagers weren't even in hiding, but already in the middle of their punishment, but that was another can of worms entirely. Sam would think about opening that one after he dealt with the first.

"Yeah, sure, just..." Sam tried once more. He had to do whatever he could to sound as casual as possible. Dean wouldn't like the news either way, but maybe Sam could get an explanation in before Dean insisted on summoning Loki and having another helping of Trickster on a skewer. Not that it ever did them any good to stake him before.

"Hey, let's not make this a bigger affair than it has to be," Dean replied in a no-nonsense tone. Dean stepped closer to Sam, put a hand on his baby brother's shoulder and made sure he had Sam's full attention before he added, "Something like this could've happened to either one of us at any time, right?"

Thanks to Cas -though to be fair, the angel hadn't exactly known that he was supposed to keep quiet about it- Dean had to come clean about the great wall of Sam, the only thing standing between Sam and insanity, death, or worse. It was only natural that Sam would be a little insecure once things didn't go according to plan. Besides, this was only their second case since Sam got his soul back. All in all nothing too bad had happened, nothing that couldn't have happened long before Sam ever went to hell anyway. They had to hold on to their little victories wherever and whenever they could get them!

"Yeah, right," Sam agreed, forcing a smile on his face. Sam was reasonably sure that Dean knew exactly that the smile was fake, but he probably figures Sam only felt bad about three teenagers getting the jump on him. One more thing that was technically true then.

"I'll go drive around town, maybe if we're lucky I'll spot them, otherwise I'll just get us some grub," Dean patted Sam's shoulder once more before he walked toward the door, only turning back briefly to ask, "Burgers alright?"

The moment Dean closed the door behind himself Sam buried his face in his palms. The half-truths were piling up already and Sam just knew they were going to break his neck sooner or later. They always did. Only, how was he supposed to come clean to Dean when it looked like Dean wanted to believe in the half-truths so much?

"Lying to Dean-o, are we?" Loki clicked his tongue disapprovingly. It looked like Hel had annoyed Loki enough to decide he would rather check on his newest human than talk to her anymore just in time to witness some interesting things going on. It also seemed Sam's hunter instincts and training made him pull a gun on any beings suddenly appearing in his room. Loki felt benevolent enough to let that slide with just a comment in retaliation, "Geez, Sam-I-am, you'd think I was some kind of monster instead of your beloved god."

Sam groaned and tucked his gun back into the waistband of his jeans. It didn't look like he was in immediate danger and even if he was he stood no chance to kill Gabriel, or Loki anyway. Actually thinking about it, the god deciding that he wanted to eat Sam after all might just solve some problems then.

"I'm not... I was trying to tell him!" Sam finally replied defensively. Not that trying would get him any bonus points once all this inevitably blew up in his face.

"About that," Loki commented seemingly casually as he unwrapped a candy bar, "Don't."

"What?" Sam asked, clearly taken aback, "You never said..."

"New rule, just came up with it," Loki explained with a shrug. He never pretended not to be very fickle, nobody could say he did. Compared to other gods, he was pretty humane in his fickleness at least, Sam should better learn to value that quality of his new god. Thinking about it, maybe the hunter could use a reminder about the nature of their relationship, so Loki added, "As my faithful worshiper, you'll of course follow my rules dutifully."

"Worshiper? I thought it was more like 'slave'," Sam huffed. He was tempted to slap Loki's wrist to get the god to stop looking through his documents and notes, but Loki's statement made it seem like a really bad idea to defy him this openly just then. It didn't really matter if Loki saw everything Sam had collected about the recent murder spree -that turned out to be sacrifices for the very Norse god standing in front of the hunter- anyway. Nothing there should be news to Loki. Though, to be honest, there probably wasn't much at all that was really news to Loki.

Loki pulled his half eaten candy bar from his mouth and cocked his head at Sam before he asked, "Whatever gave you that idea, Big Bird?"

The word slave had never fallen as far as Loki knew and he was pretty damn sure he would remember that. He had propositioned the hunter, but that was something else entirely, unless of course Sam's idea of a fun time between two consenting adults involved being someone's. It was highly unlikely, but Loki would be lying if he said he didn't like the idea. Especially since Sam had brought it up so openly.

"The whole 'You belong to me now' -thing was a pretty damn good clue," Sam deadpanned. The urge to at least tell Loki to stop going through their things was rising as the god picked up one of Dean's discarded t-shirts between two fingers just to drop it unceremoniously a second later.

"Obviously it wasn't, since you got the wrong idea," Loki snarked back, before he stopped looking for new things to inspect to fully focus on Sam for a moment, "But if you want to view yourself as my slave that's fine by me. I bet a collar would suit you well, something with my name on a little silver plate."

Sam shuddered visibly at the unbidden mental picture that popped into his head before he could stop himself. At least the casual way at which Loki immediately went back to combing through whatever personal items he could find around the motel room didn't make it look like the god had been too serious. Still, Sam was just too exhausted to deal with any of that right now. His life really was complicated enough without Loki complicating it further.

"Look, I really don't know when Dean will come back..." Sam stated, trying to sound a little meek at least. Realistically, he couldn't throw Loki out of the room. Maybe he could try an angel banishing sigil, but if that didn't work he would only have an annoyed god on his hands instead of the annoying one that was inspecting Sam's choice of ammunition just then.

"He's only been gone for a minute, Stretch," Loki replied casually, "It's called fast food, but it's not that fast."

Sam nearly jumped up from the bed to save his laptop from Loki, but before he could move a muscle Loki only snapped and made a news website appear on the screen. The headline revealed that three teenage terrorists had been arrested at the airport that evening. Sam would bet good money on the fact that he knew exactly who those three teenagers were and who got them arrested.

"You just made up a rule that says Dean can't know about all this, I'm just trying to make sure I stick to it," Sam explained in a more heartfelt nice tone. At least he and Dean would be able to leave town and declare the case closed for them now. The teenagers were arrested and Sam had the visible proof to show to his older brother.

"Nice try," Loki chuckled as he stepped away from the laptop for the hunter's peace of mind, "But you're not completely wrong. Still, you'll have to make some time for me in your schedule. I plan to pester you now and then."

Loki would prefer to meet up with the hunter outside of cheap motel rooms anyway. They didn't have that kind of relationship after all, though Loki considered asking Sam if he was sure he still didn't want to take the one night stand instead of the eternal worship. Then again, at this point Loki didn't think he wanted to get rid of the human that quickly.

"And what am I going to tell Dean?" Sam asked nearly a little helplessly. As Loki knew Sam already tried to come clean to Dean and it just didn't work. Now he wasn't even allowed to tell Dean what was going on, but just disappearing for a couple of hours or more without giving any kind of reason was just not something Sam did. Dean wouldn't let him get away with that even if he tried to act like he was forming a new habit. Years or not, Dean still hadn't let go of Ruby.

"Don't know, don't care, your problem," Loki shot back, before he saw Sam's dejected, sort of lost expression and softened his tone some, "Okay, can't say I'm not helpful. You met a nice, curvy blonde with a great personality you'd really like to spend some time with. Switch it up a bit for the different towns you go to. Voila."

Technically everything Loki just advised Sam to tell his brother was true... from a certain point of view. Loki himself had no problems lying to people, but it looked like Sam was more of the kind who preferred Jedi-truths.

"No, no, that's just not going to happen," Sam protested even before he made the conscious decision to do so. That sounded too much like a lie Sam might have told during the time he had allowed Ruby to string him along. Matters were different in the current case, but that didn't mean Sam could fall back into old patterns like that. It simply felt too wrong.

"Excuse me? You're really not good at this whole 'I'm your god, you do as I say' -thing," Loki huffed, throwing his arms in the air for good measure. To be honest though, Sam's habit of challenging Loki was one of the things that made the hunter interesting in the first place. It also made him very frustrating at times, but they hadn't reached that point yet. Hey, Loki had managed to stand over a hundred Tuesdays of Sam stubbornly refusing to just accept the inevitable, this was child's play by comparison.

"Not telling Dean about what happened back there is one thing, but I'm not going to... I can't lie to him and go sneaking around behind his back like that," Sam tried to explain in a way Loki would maybe understand, "It never ends well and I just can't do that to him again."

Sam wasn't even sure what he was hoping for here. The best case scenario was that Loki would give up on meeting him -ever- but that was too unlikely to even hope for. There had to be some solution that didn't require Sam to repeat grave mistakes of the past though. Maybe if Loki kept popping in when he was sure Dean wasn't there... it was only marginally better than actively lying to Dean about where he was going, but it should be bearable for some time at least.

"Huh," Loki commented, sounding nearly impressed, "Looks like someone learned a lesson along the way. Not exactly the lesson I was trying to teach you, but still..."

Of course, accepting Dean's death and really moving on with his life those couple of years ago would have prevented Sam from ever falling for Ruby's trap in the first place. However, not hiding his demon blood addiction might have done some good in the great scheme of things as well, so the lesson learned was close enough to a win for Loki to feel like rewarding the hunter.

"Fine. Tell Dean whatever the hell you want, I don't care," Loki shrugged casually, before he added seriously, "But don't expect me to meet up with him or any of your other hunter friends."

The last thing Loki needed was to have Dean Winchester on his ass, so to say. Sam was fun -or had the potential to be fun anyway- and a challenge, Dean was overbearing and too trapped in his black and white mentality. Besides, the chance of ending up on a stake again seemed higher with Dean Winchester. Even if Dean knew just as well as his younger brother that he couldn't kill Loki like that, it seemed sort of likely that he would try just for the hell of it. No one ever said that those things felt good just because they didn't kill him.

"I've had enough troubles with my daughter over _you_ ," Loki added on second thought. Hel would most likely explode if Loki started to hang out with both Winchesters and he really didn't feel like not speaking to his daughter for a decade or several dozen. Hel could be overbearing -maybe she should go for a coffee with Dean some time- but she still was his beloved daughter!

"Your... daughter?" Sam asked, all too obviously surprised. The moment the words left his mouth and even before Loki rolled his eyes at him, Sam already knew he had said something wrong again.

"Next time we meet I'll whack you over the head with a mythology book, so help me... me," Loki snarked. Of course, the books were wrong on many accounts, but Sam seemed to miss the bare basics! Loki hadn't questioned the hunter on why Baldur really had a beef with Loki or something alike. Not having the correct answers to a question like that would have been acceptable, but not knowing the name of Loki's daughter... They did study up on him when they -tried to- go after him right? Or did they just survive with sheer dumb luck?

"No, I... Hel, right?" Sam cleared his throat awkwardly. Since he apparently was meant to know the answer, the one found in mythology seemed like a safe bet. It was just surprising that Gabriel, or Loki, or whoever he exactly was actually had a child, or most likely several. Sam shrugged apologizing before he added, "I just didn't know what parts of the myths were true. I mean, you're obviously not strapped to a rock and being poisoned over and over again..."

"You humans have too much imagination sometimes," Loki laughed. Generally, it was a safe bet that all the noble and heroic myths were somewhat untrue. Sometimes the gods themselves had been the ones to make sure the stories were written that way. It never hurt to make sure good publicity was spread as far as possible and over time.

"So, you've got a wolf, a snake and a horse for sons?" Sam asked curiously. This was something they could actually talk about, if Loki really insisted on meeting Sam regularly. If the god was willing to share the true stories behind some myths that might actually be useful and interesting. Of course, first Sam had to somehow explain the whole thing to Dean, now that he was allowed to once more. Only thinking of that gave Sam a stress induced headache, even though technically -and wasn't that a word Sam would start to hate very quickly?- he got what he wanted.

"Did I say something wrong again?" Sam frowned a moment later. It took him shamefully long to notice the hurt look on Loki's face. The question about his sons had clearly brought this change in mood on, there was no doubt about it. This time it didn't look like Sam simply got the facts wrong either.

"Touchy subject," Loki answered, literally shrugging the hurt off until he could look at the human with his characteristic -though not heartfelt- little smirk.

"It's about the horse, right?" Sam huffed out a chuckle, before he was done thinking his statement through. The look on Loki's face hadn't been one of a man who was somewhat embarrassed about giving birth to an eight legged horse. It had been much closer to the look on Gabriel's face when he spoke about his brothers fighting.

"Something like that," Loki replied too quickly, "Know what, your brother could come back any moment. I'll let you know when I want to see you."

The god was gone before Sam could say another word. It probably was better that way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:** Thanks so much to Larkafree2, Maknatuna, Crazy as a Cheshire Cat, SummerMistedDragon, XxZessxX, QuietCrash, LeeMarieJack and LadyGrelka for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

Listen guys, I'm in a rather... dark place right now and I can't promise an update for next week... it all depends on how things will go in the next few days, but I have very little hope that things will get better anytime soon. Motivation and inspiration are non-existent... If you could find it in you to leave me a couple nice words, that would make me smile.

* * *

 **4**

"Okay, look, I need your help," Hel explained to her half-brother after the obligatory hugs were done with. Usually, Hel had no problem hugging people she was on good terms with, but she was stressed and needed to discuss an important issue as soon as possible.

"Sure thing, sis," Sleipnir replied in his usual cheerful tone, before he plopped down in one of Hel's armchairs, across from Thor who made himself comfortable on the couch. It was a little unusual for Hel to call Sleipnir and ask for a talk. They generally met each other now and then when one of them -usually Sleipnir- wanted to borrow something, or when they were at the same events. One of those happened often enough that they never went too long without meeting each other for their tastes.

"Good," Hel nodded seriously. She chose to keep standing, which was about the only option she had if she wanted to make herself appear tall in this company. Sleipnir might only be barely over six foot tall, as compared to Thor's 6'6'' frame, but they both towered over Hel when all of them were standing.

"It's about dad," Hel added, giving Sleipnir a stern look when her brother pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his all too colorful Bermuda shorts and started to play around with it. This was a serious matter that demanded their full attention, dammit!

"I'm listening. See? Totally listening," Sleipnir raised his hands defensively and then simultaneously put his phone away and turning his baseball cap, so it for once sat on his head with the shield in front, "This is my serious listening face."

Thor hid his almost laugh behind his palm and cleared his throat discretely to get rid of the amused noise that desperately wanted to escape. This was mostly between Hel and Sleipnir, Thor was only there as a spectator really, so it wasn't his place to get involved and, in a way, take sides. Even if he thought Hel was overreacting a little.

"He found himself a new pet," Hel explained after she had taken a moment to cross eyes with her brother and make sure he understood that she was damn serious about all this. Sometimes Sleipnir needed to be told two or three times before he understood something, especially when it was about serious issues.

It was pretty obvious that Sleipnir had no idea what Hel found troubling about the situation, so she added, "A human."

"You totally lost me," Sleipnir admitted with a slightly helpless shrug. It wasn't that he wasn't trying to take things serious and share his sister's worries, but sometimes she was just too hard to follow. Hopefully, she would explain things in a way that Sleipnir could and would understand.

"Dad is hanging out with a hunter," Hel groaned. To be fair, their father choosing just any human as a pet wouldn't have been too troubling, even if he hadn't done anything alike in centuries, so she couldn't blame Sleipnir for not immediately understanding the gravity of the situation... so far.

"O-kay," Sleipnir commented carefully, before he shrugged and stated, "Still don't get it."

This far Hel's eyes were still golden and her hair the same red as always. As soon as the green eyes and/or black hair came out, Sleipnir knew he had to tread very carefully. He didn't want to get burned... again.

"You don't understand the words I'm saying, or you don't get what the problem is?" Hel asked, clearly trying to keep her cool, but she was close to losing it, if the moment her eyes were a poisonous green before she blinked it away was anything to go by, "'Cause both are equally simple and obvious!"

"Some idiot dragons just raised Eve, but you're worried about dad shacking up with a hunter like it's a big deal," Sleipnir commented, frowning slightly. He obviously didn't understand what Hel thought the big problem was, but maybe explaining to her why he didn't see it would placate her a little. Honestly, Sleipnir couldn't think of a reason for why hanging out with a hunter would be bad for their father. They knew he liked to mess with humans, including hunters, every so often. If any of the pagan gods knew how far they could go, it was Loki! "Long as they're both adults and into..."

"Sometimes I really think you're more horse than man," Hel exclaimed as she threw her arms in the air in exasperation.

Sleipnir tried to keep his mouth shut by pressing his lips together as hard as he could. This was not the moment for jokes. This was not the moment for jokes. This was not the moment... Oh, screw it!

"That's what she said," Sleipnir burst out and since he was screwed already, he also got up and raised his palm in the air toward Thor, "High five!"

Hel stormed out of the room, but not quick enough not to hear the obnoxiously loud sound of two Norse gods high fiving each other. Something had to go up in flames right now!

* * *

"What happened here?" Sam asked nobody in particular as he punched the wall of the cell they had thrown him into, "What did I do?"

He had been at this town before, they discovered as much back in that restaurant. Sam and their grandfather apparently worked a case here while Sam was still soulless, that much was clear. Whatever they hunted back then was still around, that was at least very likely since he had received that text message calling him back here.

Unfortunately, Sam only sort of remembered beating the town's sheriff up badly after he came face to face with the man, in front of the police station no less. What little of the memory had returned to him made Sam's skin crawl uncomfortably. They had to knock someone out to make their exit before, that was a part of the hunter life at times as unfortunate as it was, but the way he had beaten the sheriff was just...

"Sure looks like you got yourself arrested," Loki answered Sam's question, though he fully knew it wasn't meant for him to begin with, "Personally, I thought that was obvious enough."

Sam jumped as he was pulled out of his thoughts and back into the present. Loki's entrance might have startled him, but Sam couldn't say he was scared. In a way, he was a little relieved to see the god. There was a pretty solid chance that no monster would get the jump on Sam as long as Loki was around, prison cell or not. There was something else that was a little worrying though.

"No worries, they only see what I want them to see," Loki commented, after he followed Sam's eyes to the camera overlooking the cell. Like Loki could be caught on camera unless he allowed it! Alright, there was the very small chance that he simply wasn't paying attention, but that was clearly not the case here. Either way, a good trickster always payed attention to the details.

"How'd you get in here?" Loki asked with a smirk as he produced a lollipop from his pocket. Unfortunately chances were whatever Sam had done to get himself arrested was nowhere near outraging enough to be very entertaining. However, it had the potential to be interesting.

"I don't really know," Sam replied, sounding pained, "I mean, apparently I beat up the sheriff last time I was here, I just don't..."

Loki blinked a couple of times, before he laughed. The story was better than what he had imagined. He was tempted to make a comment like 'You beat the sheriff, but you didn't beat the deputy?' Chances were Sam wouldn't find that very amusing though. Not that Loki fully understood why he gave a damn.

"A cracked marble sure is inconvenient at times, huh?" Loki asked instead, "You're lucky I can relate, so..."

Sam jumped again, more violently this time, when Loki snapped his fingers and a part of the wall just exploded, leaving a hole more than big enough even for the giant Sam to get to the street. Sam had escaped from prisons and various cells before, but this was just plain weird.

"What? You'd rather have them think you just disappeared into thin air?" Loki asked with a raised eyebrow, before he made shrugged and added, "Running would be good just about now. Didn't break you out for nothing. Shoo!"

* * *

It only took a couple of minutes for Hel to calm down enough to return to the room where Sleipnir and Thor were trying their best to look a little remorseful. Only a little, though. Still, that was enough for Hel to decide to give the talk another try. This time she would approach the topic from a different direction and just tell Sleipnir what exactly it was she expected him to do. That should work better.

"Yeah, sis, I think that's as likely as two out of three people around here getting a Brazilian wax job," Sleipnir commented, after he heard what his sister's plan was and how it involved him. Hel had well earned her reputation to be quite the firecracker, but once she went off you generally only had to wait for a couple of minutes until she could take a joke again. It come as part of the territory of growing up as her father's daughter.

Thor was about to tell Sleipnir to speak for himself, but actually two out of three still was a solid guess, even if Sleipnir had probably judged who the third person was all wrong.

"I'm only asking you to keep dad distracted, how hard can that be?" Hel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Considering how little we have in common..." Sleipnir retorted without missing a beat. He had a lot of respect and love for his father, nobody could say he didn't, but there was a reason why they only met up every once in a while. Their ways didn't cross naturally all that often and when they arranged a meeting it usually meant that one of them had to settle for doing something he usually wouldn't do. At least not that particular moment.

It was a pity too, because they nearly had a few things in common. Sleipnir was fun loving, just like Loki, but their ideal definitions of what was fun weren't fully compatible. Some things were sort of close though.

"Go to a horse race, for Pete's sake!" Hel suggested, clearly getting worked up again much sooner than usually expected from her after she already went off on them once, "Troll the people there by taking part with dad as the jockey, if you must!"

Sleipnir had to admit that his sister's idea came close to something that could actually work, if not for one little detail. She had asked him to keep their father busy for a couple of weeks in the very least. Hel's logic that a lot of things could happen to a hunter in a couple of weeks -not that she planned to do anything to Sam Winchester, she was merely stating facts- was sound. The assumption that Loki might very well not be interested in his new human anymore after not seeing him for a couple of weeks wasn't all that farfetched either.

"That's totally going to work," Thor snorted, before Sleipnir could voice about the same thought.

"What was that?" Hel asked, narrowing her eyes at Thor.

"Nothing, I said nothing," Thor replied with a perfectly innocent smile.

"Excuse me for trying to keep my father safe!" Hel exclaimed frustrated. Everybody was a critic around here, but nobody came up with better ideas! Scratch that, nobody other than her came up with any ideas, period. At this point they didn't even have to be better ideas, but a little involvement from the other people who were supposed to care about Loki would have been nice.

"Hel, it's about time you calmed down a little," Thor stated in a placating, yet firm tone. Hel was going to regret losing her temper soon enough and even if she might not see it that moment, Thor was only trying to keep the things she would have to be sorry for to a minimum.

"Calm down? How could I calm down right now?" Hel hissed, her amber eyes flashing green once more, before she added scathingly, "Of course, you wouldn't understand..."

"I gave up Mjolnir to make this work!" Thor interrupted Hel in a booming voice that was usually reserved for the halls of Asgard, "Don't you dare suggest I'm not fully committed to the cause!"

For a moment Hel wanted to argue that Thor lost that damn hammer all the time anyway. The thing got misplaced or stolen so often it spent more time apart from Thor than with him! Of course, Thor had never given Mjolnir up willingly to make a deal before. Even though he claimed the hammer always found its way back to him eventually, Hel could see that it had been by no means easy for him to part with it. Hel closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before she said, "Sorry."

"Guys, I have no idea what that was all about and I don't think I want to know. I know way too many of your secrets already," Sleipnir interjected, "But I'll try to think of something. Anything. Just not sure I can even get close to the time frame you had in mind."

He could think of a couple of things that would keep Loki busy for a day or a night, if he could convince their father to show up for them that was. Still, it was a chance and maybe, if they planned this well, there could be a couple of activities in a row.

"Anything would help right now," Hel admitted with a forced smile, "Thanks, Sleepy."

"You got it, Hell-o," Sleipnir replied and grinned when an idea hit him, "Maybe I can get him to come to the next beach party. Hey, you could come, too! Sure would make it likelier for dad to show up."

Hel nodded thoughtfully. This might just work and it was a good start. That would be at least one day their father would not spend either with or keeping tabs on Sam Winchester. It also would be one day Hel didn't have to discreetly keep an eye on Loki. It was unlikely to solve their problem -that Sleipnir didn't even fully understand, but lucky didn't want to know too much about- but it was a start for sure.

"Just, almighty God of thunder, bring shorts this time," Sleipnir added on an afterthought.

"You said there was no dress code," Thor declared just a little defensively. It wasn't like he hadn't asked what he was supposed to wear for the occasion! It was Sleipnir who said it really didn't matter!

"There wasn't, but a bunch of the guys got pretty insecure," Sleipnir shrugged casually. Besides, having to go and get some appropriate beach wear for Thor would hopefully keep Hel distracted from her worries for a little while. Nobody should say that Sleipnir wasn't considerate.

* * *

"So, you told Dean the truth yet?" Loki asked, twirling yet another lollipop between his fingers. He had chosen not to join Sam in his mad dash from the police station -getting a good work out now and then was something the god really wasn't concerned about- but there were still a couple of things to talk about, so he appeared once more after Sam had reached the abandoned house he was currently occupying with his brother.

"I... I didn't have the chance to!" Sam replied more defensively than he was comfortable with once more, "I tried, but then I got this message and we came here... people are disappearing left and right and I've been here before, but I just can't... I know we've cracked this case before, but it's just..."

That was what bothered Sam the most about his missing memories. It wasn't like he had been in a coma for over a year and was missing that time. Something like that would be bad enough, but at least then he wouldn't come into a situation where people were holding him accountable for something he had done, but couldn't remember. Of course, Dean was adamant that anything Sam had done while he was soulless was not current Sam's fault, but Sam found it hard to share that opinion when he was the one who had to answer to people who very much felt like he had wronged them.

"So? Crack it again," Loki commented seemingly completely untouched by Sam's predicament, "I didn't come here to listen to you whine, or to solve any cases for you."

"Then why did you come here?" Sam asked testily. That he still couldn't make sense of anything Loki did didn't exactly help the whole situation. Life was confusing enough at the moment without having a pagan god mocking him on his shoulder!

"I am your god," Loki answered in a way that made it sound like he was simply stating facts and not answering the question at all.

"And you're playing guardian angel now?" Sam raised an eyebrow. Somehow Loki was good at making Sam feel like he was an ant and Loki was the kid holding the magnifier. Of course, Loki chose to be a pretty benevolent god for pagan standards -as far as Sam could judge that- so far, but he still had that metaphoric magnifier in his back pocket and only had to bring it out.

"No, that means you can ask all the questions you want, but I won't ever give you a clear answer, if you get one at all," Loki clarified with a gleeful grin.

"Look, Dean should be here any..." Sam started his -this far- most successful excuse for getting rid of Loki quickly. It looked like Loki really didn't want to meet Dean, though he didn't seem worried that Sam or anyone else might stake him for good this time. Of course, if Loki was Gabriel he didn't exactly have to worry about any of them having the means to kill him... One of these days Sam would have to get to the bottom of that. Holy oil was a big maybe, but if it didn't work he'd just have a very annoyed pagan god on his hands.

"Using your brother as an excuse will get old fast, Sambo," Loki stated in a warning tone, "You better tell him about this before I do it."

Sam huffed out a humorless chuckle. Consistency wasn't Loki's strong suit apparently. Every time they talked he expected Sam to do something different. The god might as well know that his changing requirements were hard to follow, so Sam asked, "I thought you didn't care...?"

"Oh hey, look at that!" Loki suddenly exclaimed, cutting Sam off mid-question to point out a spider web on the ceiling and then sing-songed, "The itsy-bitsy spider..."

Pictures of a spider-monster assaulted Sam so quickly that he couldn't even express any confusion over Loki's sudden change of topic. Apparently, Sam and Samuel had hunted an Arachne and the current disappearances fit right into the hunting pattern of that monster. Apparently, they hadn't finished the job like they thought they did.

"Thank you," Sam breathed once the images of the past he didn't remember for the most part faded into the background a little. Loki had to have known what he did there, right? What were the chances that he just randomly chose to bring up something that would jog Sam's memory like that?

"I did nothing, but okay. Finally the recognition I deserve!" Loki stated with a smirk, before he gave a mock salute and added, "See you, Jolly Green."

Sam quickly grabbed his phone and wrote a message to Dean saying that he knew what creature they were dealing with. Dean wouldn't be happy to hear about the part where the knowledge came from an uncovered memory, but they could deal with that later. Among other things.


End file.
